At UFC 235 this past weekend at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, veteran welterweight fighter Robbie Lawler nearly pounded former Olympic wrestler and 2/1 favourite Ben Askren to a first-round TKO success. But Askren, making his first UFC appearance, managed to endure Lawler’s early onslaught of body and head shots, and about two minutes after, at 3:20 in the first round, finished the comeback, ending it with a bulldog choke.
Respected referee Herb Dean saw Lawler’s arm limp while he tried to extricate himself from the choke, causing Dean to halt the struggle in what goes down as a entry win for Askren. While controversial and unfortunate for Lawler (and his backers), it was understandable, and also the popular Lawler immediately turned from aggrieved to praising Dean and expressing his own understanding (transcript here.)
The NFL is the king of U.S sports gambling, but mixed martial arts offers something different, in some ways much better and more intriguing, and indeed controversial occasionally, same as every sport. Certain events, even to get a somewhat market game now in its very first year of a distribution deal on ESPN platforms, can generate the gambling handle seen in an excellent NFL game.
“Everyone understands a struggle”
Exposure to more mainstream audiences via ESPN and FOX Sports 1, through a previous deal, proceeds to increase MMA’s profile. To get to this point, UFC and other promotions such as Bellator have embraced and understood the participation value of sports betting.
“The UFC has been on the forefront of sports wagering content,” Jason Simbal, vice president of risk management for CG Technology, informed Sports Manage. “They embraced it by including chances on the sites on telecasts. And the announcers will cite the gambling favorites during the conflicts. They also have their personal produced betting show that airs before every pay-per-view on UFC Fight Pass, which helps.”
The PGA Tour, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and National Hockey League alike have”evolved” because the Supreme Court struck down the 1992 national ban on full scale sports wagering outside Nevada. Every one of the commissioners of these leagues currently tout the virtues of greater engagement anyhow sports wagering, manufacture new monetization opportunities, and enjoy the ones that have already come.
However, while each of those leagues, especially MLB, seek to construct new sports betting bridges using proprietary Statcast figures, for instance, there’s no learning curve to start betting on combined martial arts.
“I think it comes right down to it turned into a struggle. And what I mean by that is that if you’re dealing with a lot of other sports, you’re handling lots of variables, the principles of soccer, baseball, basketball,” veteran MMA writer-reporter Damon Martin told Sports Handle. “And there is a guttural instinct in everyone when it comes down to it.
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